


Apple Blossom

by marvel_and_mischief



Series: Floriography Series [6]
Category: Wonder Woman (Movies - Jenkins)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Pining, slight angst because of what we know comes next
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:34:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29881203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marvel_and_mischief/pseuds/marvel_and_mischief
Summary: Apple Blossom:'fame speaks him great and good'
Relationships: Maxwell Lord/Reader, Maxwell Lord/You
Series: Floriography Series [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2153310
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Apple Blossom

_1st July 1984_

You padded barefoot through the empty corridors of the Black Gold building, a bag of Chinese takeout in one hand and your work shoes in the other that had been irritating you after a full day of work. The lights were low and the phones were silent, an all too common occurrence in the past few months. The business was once a bustling ray of money and hope and now it was running out of luck. 

You saw the unpaid bills when you picked up Maxwell’s mail, the angry investors that would corner him in his office, demanding their money back. He had to tell you eventually, the company was going under but he had a plan. He couldn’t tell you what, but he had a sure way out of the crippling debt and you found yourself trusting him. There was no reason not to.

You reached Maxwell’s office, tapping on the open door and walking in without waiting for an answer.

Maxwell looked up from behind his desk, a relieved smile growing on his lips as he saw it was you. He placed the magnifying glass that he’d been using in a drawer and gave you his full attention. 

“Looking at anything interesting?” you asked, spying pages of a language you couldn’t read and diagrams of rocks you hadn’t seen before.

“No more interesting than the food in that bag,” Maxwell stood and pointed to the takeout in your hand, leading the way to the corner of his office where a comfortable couch was waiting for you. Maxwell moved a cushion for you to sit and took the bag of food from you. 

“I am making progress,” Maxwell said excitedly, opening the plastic tubs of various dishes and arranging them on the coffee table.

“Will I get any details today?” Your voice held a teasing edge to it but you wanted to know why he was being so secretive if it meant saving Black Gold.

Maxwell hesitated to answer though, distracting himself with the food before taking a seat next to you on the couch, motioning for you to dig into the takeout.

“Just trust me, all will be revealed soon,” Maxwell spoke around a forkful of noodles and you decided to drop it. He seemed excited and confident about his plans so who were you to question him. 

You sat in amiable silence whilst you both ate your food. Times like these were rare a few years back, when you were starting out in the company you would be working well into the late evenings, keeping Maxwell’s mug filled with coffee, answering the phones, signing off on this and that, some days you’d _forget_ to eat. 

Now, you found yourself struggling to find something to do. You’d make up work just to fill the time in your day. You weren’t just Maxwell’s PA anymore, you worked general maintenance, dabbled as a cleaning lady, you even drove Raquel home most evenings just to stop yourself chewing your nails down to the skin. 

Sometimes you asked yourself why you stuck around. And then you’d take one look at Maxwell, how he brightened up when you entered the room, how much he confided in you about his anxieties about the business and immediately remembered why you had to stay. He needed you and you _wanted_ to be there for him if his plans didn’t work out. 

Maxwell would need someone to be his anchor when the ship sunk. And that would be you.

Maxwell gave a sigh of contentment after his last forkful of noodles, placing the empty tub back on the coffee table to rifle through the bag the takeout came in.

“Don’t forget your weekend with Alistair is coming up,” you reminded him, licking sauce from the corner of your lips. 

“Huh?” Maxwell was distracted by his new find; a box of fortune cookies at the bottom of the bag, “want to open one? See what our future holds?” he asked with an exaggerated wiggle of his eyebrows. You laughed and nodded, holding out your hand for a cookie.

Maxwell watched as you snapped your cookie in half, pulling the two pieces apart to reveal a slip of paper inside. You carefully pulled it out, placing the cookie pieces on your lap to read the fortune.

“ _‘Fame speaks him great and good’_ ,” you read, raising an eyebrow to Maxwell who looked surprised, “d’you think that means you?”

Maxwell laughed loudly and ripped the paper out of your hand to check you weren’t making it up.

“It really says that,” Maxwell confirmed, “I keep telling you good things are coming for us.”

You smiled at the look of delight on his face, and thought maybe there truly was nothing to worry about when it came to Maxwell and Black Gold.

“Come on then, open yours,” you nudged his knee with yours, eager to find out what his fortune said.

Maxwell made a show of rolling up his shirt sleeves, making you giggle around a mouthful of your cookie. He cleared his throat and snapped his cookie.

You watched as his eyes widened ever so slightly, before he righted himself and rid his features of anything that resembled what he felt about what he was reading. You frowned, wondering why he was reacting so weirdly. It took too long for Maxwell to read aloud his message, and eventually you had to prompt him by tapping him on the arm.

“Just as I thought, _‘fortune is on the horizon’_ ,” Maxwell laughed but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. He pocketed the piece of paper and cleared his lap of crumbs.

“So there’s really nothing to worry about?” 

Maxwell looked at you like a deer in headlights, then gave you his award winning smile, his hand reaching over to rest atop yours.

“Absolutely nothing,” he promised, and you believed that he believed that but that didn’t stop you from feeling uneasy about Maxwell’s secretive plans, “we will be okay.”

You mustered up a smile and he tapped your hand before standing.

“I’m going to bathroom,” he stated, and as Maxwell walked through his office a small piece of paper fluttered out of his pocket and fell to the ground.

“Oh, Max-“ but he had already left as you jumped up from the couch to pick it up. You realised it was the fortune he had acted strangely around, and instead of leaving it be, placing it on the table for when he got back, you couldn’t help wanting to look. So that’s exactly what you did. 

_‘The love of your life is right in front of your eyes’_

The breath caught in your throat as you read and re-read the line. It hit you then how badly you wanted it to be true. And suddenly everything made sense. Why you worked so hard for him, why you didn’t entertain the idea of ever leaving Maxwell or Black Gold no matter how much the company was going downhill, you were prepared to ride or die, right to the bitter end. It was because you liked him. And this all but confirmed to you that he didn’t feel the same about you.

You were so busy overthinking your own feelings that you didn’t hear Maxwell returning from the bathroom. He stood over your shoulder, holding his breath as he watched you for your reaction.

“I can’t do anything about it,” Maxwell whispered into the silence of the room, making you spin around in surprise to face him, and you instantly noticed he was a mere couple of feet away from you. 

“I knew it,” you sighed, shaking your head. Of course he didn’t like you, you were just his assistant after all.

Just as you were about to turn around and gather your things he grabbed you softly by the arm, making you face him once again. 

“That isn’t what I mean,” Maxwell looked lost for words, screwing his eyes shut as he tried to gather his thoughts, “I want to be more than your boss, more than your _friend_ , but this thing I’m doing, that I swear to you will change everything for the better, I need to do that first.”

During his speech Maxwell had stepped closer to you, taking your hands in his and pressing them against his chest, eyes boring into yours. You shouldn’t have been thinking it, not when he was trying to be honest and open with you, but you thought he looked beautiful. You’d always known he was handsome but this close, he had pretty brown eyes and a nose that wouldn’t looked out of place on a marble statue for all to admire. 

“I’m doing a big thing for the company, for Alistair, but also for you. So I can be someone you are proud to walk through galas with on your arm, that you are proud to shout about,” Maxwell took a deep breath and slowly rested his forehead against yours, “will you wait for me?”

It was a loaded question, one that stopped you in your tracks but it really shouldn’t have. Waiting is what you’ve been doing, isn’t it? Without even knowing, you’ve been waiting for this moment where you’d wake up to your feelings and be faced with them. You knew you could wait a little longer, especially if Maxwell was promising himself on the other side of whatever he had planned.

“I can wait,” you smiled, leaning forward to place a quick, chaste kiss to his lips, “whatever happens, good or bad, I’ll wait.”


End file.
